This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 2003-42774, filed on Jun. 27, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable phone and a method of using the same, and more specifically, to a glove-shaped wearable phone and a method of using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, with the generalized use of portable phones, more attention is being paid to a reduction in the volume of the portable phones and convenient methods of carrying the phones. Thus, various and modified methods of wearing phones have been proposed in more convenient manners.
For example, methods of using a necklace to wear a phone, using a pouch for the exclusive use of a phone, and putting a phone on a user's hip have been proposed.
Meanwhile, although portable phones embedded in watches or accessory-type phones attachable to clothes were also invented, they are not widely used.
In recent years, ring-type phones and glove-type phones, which focus on wearing and using convenience, have been invented. In both types of phones, the positions of speakers and microphones are determined considering distance between the mouth and the ear. In particular, since a ring-type phone is highly portable and transformable, it provides various combinations. Also, the ring-type phone enables ear-mouth distance equivalent to that in conventional folder-type portable phones.
Nevertheless, the ring-type phones have the following disadvantages.
Firstly, phones that are manufactured in the shape of rings are not customized to fit various users, and wearing and removing them are somewhat inconvenient.
Secondly, because of limited miniaturization techniques, it is difficult to prepare wireless communication modules and power suppliers for the ring-type phones. Instead, the wireless communication modules and the power suppliers need to be mounted on portions other than the phones, for example, the wrist or the like. Therefore, it would be quite inconvenient and uncomfortable.
Thirdly, it is difficult to transmit and receive data between the ring-type phone and a wireless communication module and also to supply electric power to the phone.
Fourthly, a speaker having good sound quality cannot be mounted on the ring-type phone because of its large size.
The latter phone, i.e., a glove-type phone, is wearable on one hand and its microphone 20 and speaker 18 are disposed considering distance between the ear and the mouth as shown in FIG. 1.
In the phone 10 shown in FIG. 1, a first key panel 48 including buttons is located on the back of the hand. Thus, whenever a user makes a phone call or selects a mode, the other hand, which does not wear the phone, is needed to select a button. That is, the phone shown in FIG. 1 lacks hands-free control, which is one of three requisites for wearable phones (i.e., carrying convenience, comfortable calling posture, and hands-free control).
Also, when the key panel 48 is installed in the limited space of the back of the hand, reducing the size of keys is limited due to the thicknesses of the fingers and this restricts the size of a display. Accordingly, the glove-type phone 10 shown in FIG. 1 does not meet the requisitions for the latest portable phones, such as large-sized displays for voice communications and the exchange and display of diverse multimedia information.
Also, technically, the phone 10 shown in FIG. 1 has an advantage of disposing the speaker 18 on the palm of the hand to help a user's comfortable calling. However, since the speaker 18 and a strap 66 used for supporting the speaker 18 are disposed on the palm required for touching and handling various objects, the speaker 18 may be mechanically and chemically shocked.
In FIG. 1, reference numerals 12, 14, 42, and 44 denote a glove, the hand, the wrist, and the fingers, respectively. Reference numerals 50, 52, and 54 denote a first display, a first antenna, and a battery receiving mechanism, respectively. Reference numerals 56, 58, 60, and 66 denote a battery, a circuit receiving mechanism, a card slot, and the first strap, respectively. Also, reference numerals 68, 70, and 92 denote a second strap, a supporting element, and the big finger, respectively.
A more detailed description of the phone 10 shown in FIG. 1 is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,153 entitled “HAND ADAPTIVE TELEPHONE” by Kevin D. Kaschke and Hoffman Estates.